A Foreign Exchange
by Kath87
Summary: Set immediately after fifth year. Harry is dealing with stuff, and an exchange student helps him cope and find the answer to his problems.Finally updated.
1. Hatred of Flying

I've been mulling this story over in my head for a while now, but I've never gotten the chance to really sit down and write it. So, I'm really excited about this. I hope everyone enjoys!

Disclaimer: I own Kat, Jared, the youth group, Kim, ect. (heh heh heh...yes Kimmy, I own you) basically anything you see that isn't familiar. Oh, and I realize the Harry Potter universe takes place in like, 1995 or something like that, but who likes to be politically correct? :)

A Foreign Exchange

Chapter One

She hated flying. Kat Bailey had only flown a few times in her life, and every time it had not been the most pleasant of experiences. The first time she had flown, two of her classmates had said simultaneously, "Aww...you're gonna die!" Her youth pastor had hit her in the face with a dog slipper named Ralph while she tried to sleep. Her ears never popped until at least a day after the flight. And they never gave out peanuts. It was always those stupid cookie things. Kat wanted some peanuts!

On that note, Kat pulled some salted peanuts out of her bag. She had thought ahead that time. She sat there munching on her snack, staring out the window, and thinking about how incredibly long this flight was. And she hated flying. Oh well, the destination is well worth it. She was on her way to England. After some research, lots of extra hours at the movie theater (where she worked), and a lot of prayer, Kat had managed to go through a summer exchange program. Her Spanish teacher had wanted her to go to Mexico with the I.U. Honors program, but she declined. She didn't really feel like speaking Spanish the whole summer, and she had already been to Mexico the previous year, and it just wouldn't be the same without her youth group.

Kat smiled at this. The trip to Mexico had changed her life. And she had only been there for a week! She was going to be in England for the summer! She was definitely expecting this to be a life changing experience as well.

Kat felt a jolt in her stomach. They would be landing soon. She hoped she wouldn't get lost. She was supposed to be looking for the Dursleys. It was a married couple and their son, Dudley. Dudley was about the same age as Kat. She sincerely hoped that he wasn't attractive; that wasn't what she was there for.

* * *

"The flight's fifteen minutes late," Vernon Dursley growled. He was an extremely impatient man, who loved the saying, "To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, and to be late is to be dead." The Dursleys had arrived at the airport half an hour earlier. They stood waiting at the gate. Well, Vernon and his wife Petunia were standing. Dudley couldn't stand up for that long. He was sitting in a chair that could barely contain him, clutching the sign that read, "Kat Bailey."

Vernon started tapping his shoe. Petunia put a reassuring hand on his arm and said, "I'm sure it will get here soon, dear." She understood his impatience. He was mostly just nervous. In her letters, Kat had seemed like a nice, respectable girl. A normal girl. And the Dursleys harbored a boy who was as not normal as a person could possibly be. Petunia's nephew, Harry, had been left on their doorstep fifteen years ago. His parents had been murdered, and Petunia had just known that nothing good would come of having the spawn of two wizards. Especially one who was targeted by a psycho. This was why Vernon was nervous. He didn't want anything unusual to happen while Kat was there.

It was announced on the intercom that the plane had landed, and Vernon breathed a sigh of relief. "Finally." A few minutes later, a girl emerged from the gate. She seemed average enough; long brown hair, fair complexion. She was wearing baggy tan pants and a black top, and she wore a chain with a fish charm around her neck. She spotted the sign, smiled, and walked over to the Dursleys.

"Um...are you guys the Dursleys?" She inquired.

"Oh, yes, dear," Petunia gushed, "And you must be Kat."

"Indeed I am." Kat shook each of their hands in turn, internally smacking herself for wandering whether or not Dudley would be attractive. No offence to large people or anything, but he just wasn't cute. They stood there for a few minutes, asked her how the flight was, that sort of thing. But Vernon was extremely anxious to get out of the hectic airport, so he suggested that they all go eat.

At the restaurant (which had an awesome steak) Vernon and Petunia decided to break the news to Kat about their nephew.

"Wow, this is awesome." Kat was now digging into her fries. "I mean, no offence or anything, but I had heard that the food here is bad. It really isn't. I don't taste any difference. But then again, I also heard it was plain, and I don't really like spicy foods that much, so it works for me."

"I'm glad to hear that, dear." Petunia cleared her throat. "Um, actually, we haven't been completely honest with you, I'm afraid.

Kat looked up. "What do you mean?"

Petunia looked to her husband, who nodded, and continued. "We have a nephew that stays with us during the summer. His name is Harry. During the school year he stays at St. Brutus' Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys. So, we just want to forewarn you that he is very, um, strange, and that if he says or does anything unusual, please just ignore him. He usually stays in his room, so he shouldn't bother you, but you know, just in case."

Kat processed the information. "Not a problem. I actually have a brother who goes to a boy's school, so, I guess I'm kind of used to that sort of thing."

Petunia blinked. "Oh."

"Yeah. He's doing a lot better since he started going there though, so..."

Vernon cleared his throat. "Well, with that said, we have to pick him up at the train station tomorrow. You don't have to come; you can stay at the house if you wish..."

"Oh no, it's fine, I'll go with you guys."

Vernon paled slightly at this. "Okay." He had been hoping she would stay at home, since he didn't want any chance of her seeing "those people."

* * *

"Well, here we are." They had just walked in the door. It was a very nice house. Very clean. Abnormally clean. But then again, Kat lived with her obsessive-compulsive grandmother for two years, so she was used to clean. Petunia gave her a tour of the house, and showed her the room she would be staying in.

"Well, I expect you want to be getting to sleep, then. You've had a long day, after all." Petunia made to shut the door. "If you need anything just ask. We're very happy to have you here with us." She leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, "Me especially. It will be nice to have a girl around for once."

"Thanks. Good night." Kat lay down on the bed. It was very comfortable. She had had a long day. It was nice to finally be able to lie down. And she loved to sleep.

* * *

First chapter! That's a huge step for me. Well, please review. I know it's kind of weird at first but believe me, it will get better. Harry's in the next chapter, I promise!


	2. Tourist

So sorry it took so long guys. What with my junior year starting and all the uploading problems, I've been freaking out. But, that's all in the past, and I am going to try to update more often, so enjoy!

Oh, and muchas gracias to the people who reviewed. Since this is my first actual story, I'm excited that I got reviews from people I don't know. That usually means that you're not just reviewing out of pity. So thanks a bunch, and to bitter.sweet.31- Kat is from Indianapolis. I've heard many times to write what I know, and I know Indy. It's the most boring city in America (unless you're rich and can go downtown anytime you want) but oh well. The important thing is, the story does not take place in Indianapolis. That would suck. On with the story!

* * *

Chapter Two

Kat woke up the next morning feeling surprisingly refreshed. She was usually always tired, no matter how many hours of sleep she got. Especially if it was under seven. But, she had gotten about six hours or so, and she felt wide-awake. Well, she mused, that didn't count the sleep she got on the plane. She liked to lie in bed for a while after she woke up, pondering random things. It was one of the many qualities of hers that caused her friends to call her a weirdo. Oh well. It was in an endearing way, she thought, as she pulled herself out of bed.

Half an hour later, Kat, freshly showered and primped, went down to breakfast. Vernon and Petunia were in the kitchen, but Dudley was still upstairs. "Dudders, your breakfast is getting cold!" Petunia shouted.

"Dudders?" Kat thought to herself.

Dudley came thundering down the hall. "Man, that boy is large." Kat tried not to think mean thoughts, but she couldn't help it. It was a nasty habit she was trying to work on. At least she had started to control what thoughts came out of her mouth. Started.

"Did you have a good sleep, dear?" Petunia asked.

"Oh, yeah. I slept a lot better than usual, actually." Kat replied. "I'm usually tired if I don't get my, uh, thirteen hours of sleep, but I'm wide awake, so..."

Petunia laughed feebly; she didn't know whether the girl was joking or not. She then asked, "What do you want to do today, dear; we don't have to leave for a few hours."

"Oh yeah, the train station. Um, I think I'm just gonna unpack." Kat ate quickly, and shut herself in her room. She proceeded to unpack her belongings. She had pretty much brought everything that mattered to her: her collection of cds (which, she was proud to say, amounted to about 70 now, even if half of them were copied), several books, her bible case, and some composition notebooks (she had a thing with composition notebooks. They just look so professional!) Oh, and her special pen that had Stewie on it saying "I like you. When the world is mine, your death shall be quick and painless." She really liked that pen.

Kat finally had everything put away and nice and neat (sort of obsessive-compulsive) and chilled with her laptop for a bit. She remembered to post a message on her youth group's message board, and she felt a pang of homesickness.

"Kat, are you ready to leave?" Petunia's voice sounded from behind the door.

"Yeah." Kat hopped off the bed, and proceeded downstairs, camera in hand. She didn't care if she looked like a tourist. She was a tourist, and she wanted pictures.

* * *

All pangs of homesickness disappeared when they got to London. King's Cross was awesome. They didn't have train stations in Indy. Except for union station, but that doesn't count. Kat was seriously overwhelmed by the awesomeness of the British people. They had interesting fashion sense, too, she noted as she watched a pair of redheaded twins walk by wearing the weirdest looking jackets she had ever seen. Oh well, the guys were really hot. "Kimmy would be so jealous," Kat thought about her best friend. "She loves redheads. And twins! Twins, Basil!" (Kat was a major Austin Powers fan as well.)

There was a café in the station, and Vernon had given her money to get herself something. He seemed kinda on edge. Maybe he had an anxiety disorder. Prozac! She figured that Harry's train was there by then, so she quickly finished her frappucino and traced her way back to platform ten. She wondered what Harry was going to be like. She hoped he wasn't as fat as his cousin. ("There I go again. Stop being mean, Kat!") But, like she had been afraid of on the plane, she hoped Harry wouldn't be attractive. Though, judging by the rest of his family, he probably wasn't. ("OH MY GOSH!") She really needed to deal with that inner insulting thing.

As she approached the platform, she noticed the Dursleys talking to a group of people, so she thought it best to not intrude. They must have been Harry's teachers or classmates or something. One of them had cool hair. Another guy had an awesome hat. It brought back memories. "Yes, Kimmy, wash the car." Kat smiled at this recollection. Why were she and her friends so stupid? She loved it.

The Dursleys started walking away (well, backing away. They looked kinda scared.) and a short skinny boy with black hair and glasses came walking towards her, followed by the Dursleys. Kat assumed this was Harry. "Darn it, he is attractive. Oh well, he's a supposed delinquent, and you know you can't have any of that."

The boy she presumed was Harry stopped when he saw she was staring at him. She noticed he had gorgeous green eyes, and a strange lighting shaped scar on his forehead. He was absolutely adorable. Kat stuck out her hand. "Hi. You must be Harry."


	3. Confusion

And I have another one for ya. I just wanted to apologize if anything goes over your head. I realize the thoughts in Kat's head are very random, and it might be hard to connect sometimes. I try to explain everything as much as possible, hence the Austin Powers thing last chapter. If something is like "huh?" don't worry about it. I'm trying to show how people can think the most random thoughts at the most random (and sometimes inappropriate) times. So if anything is really weird, and I don't have some sort of explanation, it probably has no significance, just the ramblings of a confused teenage mind. Thanks for reading!

Oh, and if you haven't read OotP (Shame on you if you haven't) MAJOR SPOILERS

* * *

Chapter Three

Harry was feeling very confused at the moment. He was in the car on the way back to the Dursleys. He had to sit in the middle because Kat had said, "You're definitely the skinniest." She had meant it in a joking way, except she was serious...serious sounded like Sirius...and he was depressed again. Well, Harry was always depressed, just sometimes, like now, he was more depressed than usual. He tried to take his mind off of the Sirius subject. He thought back to when he had first encountered this muggle girl sitting beside him. He had been walking towards the exit of the station, the Dursleys rushing behind him, when this girl was standing in front of him. She kept looking at him. Not in a hostile way, like anyone associated with the Dursleys would look at him. She regarded him with a friendly curiosity.

"Hi. You must be Harry."

Harry had stood stunned. "Er...yeah." He tentatively shook her outstretched hand.

"I'm Kat. It's great to meet you."

Harry just nodded numbly. Who was this person? And why did she know his name? The Dursleys came up from behind them and Petunia had lead Kat to the car. Vernon had taken Harry aside and explained to him that they had a guest from America staying with them for the summer and that his "abnormality" wasn't going to mess anything up. Kat was a nice girl and didn't need to be around the likes of him.

Then, Kat had seen Hedwig. The look on the Dursleys' faces was priceless. Harry guessed that they had completely forgotten about Hedwig. And according to them, people with pet owls were exactly the kind of people who nice girls like Kat didn't need to be around. But Kat had adored Hedwig. And Hedwig had seemed to really like Kat.

"Oh, she's gorgeous!" Kat had spent ten minutes stroking the owl's feathers. "I didn't know you could just have pet owls. That's awesome! I want one!" Harry had been surprised. Most people would have thought it really strange to have an owl, and stayed away. At least, from his experience. This girl was turning out to be pretty strange herself. Maybe it was because she was American. He didn't really care. With any luck he would be out of that house within a few weeks. He pitied her for having to stay the whole summer.

When they got to the house, Harry trudged up to his room, dropped his trunk, and threw himself on his bed. He didn't bother to turn on the lights or change. He didn't care. Nothing mattered anymore. Sirius was gone. It was his fault. He was going to die. Life was not going so well for Harry Potter. He fell into a restless sleep, plagued by nightmares of Sirius' accusing face, and a high, piercing, demonic laugh as the soundtrack....

* * *

Sorry it's short. But I thought it would be a good place to stop. Plus I'm really tired. Junior year really sucks. Really. Anyway, I know it's going kinda slow (at least, I think it is; it moves so fast in my head) but it will get faster. I just don't wanna rush things, 'cause then I get all mixed up, and it's no good. I will update more frequently, I promise. Thanks!


	4. Deliver Me

Sorry for the delay, I have a lot going on. But I'm gonna try to have at least one more chapter up by the end of the weekend.

If this chapter depresses you, good. That's kinda what I was going for. It's all about Harry, and how bad his life sucks, so it's going to be pretty depressing. But that doesn't mean the whole story is!

Chapter Four

_Deliver me out of the sadness_

_Deliver me from all of the madness_

Harry didn't realize a person could have such conflicting emotions burning in him at the same time. He had been at the Dursleys for a weekend so far, and it was the longest three days of his life. Time passed sluggishly, hours bled together. Usually Harry didn't know when it was night or day, nor did he care. He spent his life lying on his bed, blinds shut, eyes boring into the white ceiling but not seeing it. Instead he saw Sirius' sad eyes, Voldemort's smirk, Dumbledore's sympathetic stare.

And again with the tangled knot of emotions. Harry was hot with anger and shivering with fear at the same time. He was consumed with guilt and burning with a fiery vengeance: against Bellatrix for killing Sirius, against Voldemort for existing, and against himself. He hated himself for being weak, for not being man enough to listen to his friends, for trying to do everything himself. "Playing the hero."

His thoughts often drifted to what would happen if he ended it. Would anyone miss him? He doubted it. They would miss his saving them all from their impending doom. And doom was inevitable. Not just in his black hole of life, where he couldn't run from the pressure that was sucking him into shadows of despair. Everyone, everything was doomed. Why don't we all just lie down and wait for it to come, because we can't fight it. Everyone expects him to fight it. He's the only one who can. They couldn't be more wrong.

At that point, when Harry would come to the thoughts of everyone's expectations, he felt a huge unpleasant leap in his middle, like he was going down a roller coaster. He was sure he would snap with the pressure he was under. It was so much! He felt trapped, in a desolate room, empty of domestic comforts but full of garbage, forgotten waste strewn across the floor, and no matter how hard he tried to clear it, the trash would just slide sneakily back into its place, threatening to take him under with its stagnant stench.

When he got to this overwhelming part of his mind's routine, he would usually stand up and kick something. Then he would drop to the floor and stare at the wall, trying to stem the flow of tears that threatened to push through like an unstoppable rebel force.

This distraught routine had been going on since he had arrived at the Dursleys, and it might have continued, if his stomach would have allowed it. But after three days of not eating, it demanded attention. So Harry finally lifted himself up off the floor and trudged downstairs in search of something to keep himself from starving. When he walked back up the stairs with a banana and some chips, he paused at a sound outside the door to the guestroom. It was a strange sounding music. A choir of some sort was singing, and the music was very fast paced. Harry then heard a girl's voice passionately singing along.

Harry returned to his room and forced himself to eat. He thought about the girl staying in the guest room. As the Dursleys were probably happy to acknowledge, Kat was a normal girl. And yet...she wasn't normal. Harry couldn't put his finger on it, but there was definitely something different about her. He hadn't been around her too much, but what he did see was that she was not like any muggle he had ever encountered. For one thing, she gave him the time of day, and without knowing he was the hero of the wizarding world. She always took the time to ask him how he was, or talk about Hedwig. And she seemed...happy. Really, genuinely happy. Harry didn't think he had ever been truly happy. It was something he envied of her. His thoughts distracted him from his despair for a few minutes, and all he saw was her blue eyes shining with a light he couldn't decipher.

But then the distraction was over. He was fed; his stomach was content for the time being. He lay down on his bed and resumed his "routine."

* * *

Yeah, I just depressed myself! Oh wow. Well, there you go. It's ISTEP week, but since I'm a Junior, I get to do a whole lot of nothing for four hours. So, I'll try to get sleep at night so I can work on this during ISTEP, and hopefully I'll have my time well managed so I don't freak out. Thanks for reading!


	5. Freaks and Friends

Hey guys. SO sorry it took longer than expected. Last weekend was my birthday, so I was really busy. But I tried to make this a really good chapter. I promise I will try to update more frequently.

Oh, and to answer a question, I live in America. ISTEP is standardized test we have to take every few years to make sure we're not hopelessly dumb. I never have to take it again!

Ch. 5

The next day, Hedwig flew in with a letter tied to her leg. Harry's eyebrows knitted together in confusion as he rolled out of bed. "Where have you been?" he asked as he stretched his arms, which were stiff from lack of use. Hedwig just stuck her leg out, patiently waiting.

Harry took the letter from her, gave her an owl treat, and sat back on his bed. He opened the letter, which was from Hermione. It was rather brief, since it had only been a few days since they had seen each other. Harry began to read with indifference.

Dear Harry,

Hey! Hedwig just showed up at my house and kept hooting at me until I sat down and wrote to you. I think she might be worried that you're lonely. It must be dreadfully boring at the Dursleys. Hopefully you'll get to leave soon.

Everything's fine here. Mum and Dad are happy to have me home. They don't get to see me much, you know. I haven't been doing much; mostly reading. I should probably owl Ron.

Well, I can't really think of much to say, since it hasn't even been a week since we got home. I hope you're okay; Hedwig's arrival led me to believe something might be wrong. Please reply and let me know. Oh, and don't forget to write to Remus and let him know you're okay.

Hope to see you soon,

Hermione

Harry stared at the letter. It wasn't much, but it was some contact with a friend, and he really needed that. He looked up at his owl. "Thanks, Hedwig." She hooted wisely. Harry quickly replied to Hermione's letter, letting her know he was fine (though he really wasn't; he just didn't feel like writing a huge letter at the moment), then wrote to Lupin, lying to him about being okay as well.

After Hedwig set off again, Harry was overcome with a sudden burst of restlessness. He decided to go for a walk like he used to.

It was a beautiful summer evening. The heat of the day had disappeared, and it seemed as if everyone else had felt the need to be outside as well. Children played in their plastic ships and castles, dogs energetically barked at each other through fences, adults sat on their porches, talking in cheery tones and letting their dinners digest. The perfect picture of a muggle suburb. Normal people.

Harry was depressed again. He wanted so badly to be normal. To have parents. To have loving siblings. To not be famous. But it wasn't to be. He sighed from the bottom of his soul. He was a freak. A big, stupid freak.

Harry found himself at the park, one of his old haunts. He sat in one of the swings (they had been replaced since last summer when Dudley's gang had broken them) and stared at the ground. He was so lost in thinking about nothing that he didn't hear someone jog past him, then backtrack and stand right in front of him.

"Harry?"

Harry jerked his head up. There was Kat, wearing running shoes and breathing heavily. He vaguely remembered her telling Aunt Petunia after dinner that she jogged in the evenings (she didn't want to go home flabby). She had a strange look on her face now. It took him a minute to realize it was concern.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah. Uh, hi." He looked back at the ground, feeling really stupid.

"Do you mind if I join you?"

He shook his head, and she took the swing next to him and started pushing herself. They sat in silence for a while. Finally, Kat made a stab at conversation.

"It's really nice here."

"Yeah, I guess."

"I mean, it's so peaceful. In America, or at least, in my neck of the woods, you can hardly go anywhere without some stupid people actin' fools." Harry was kind of confused, so he just nodded.

Kat's voice took on an overly enthusiastic tone. "So. Harry. How are you doing? Good? Bad? Yes, no, yes, no, yes, no?"

Harry did something he hadn't done in days: he smiled. Kat noticed.

"Oh my gosh, he can smile!" she exclaimed. "For a while there I thought you were born without a personality."

At this, Harry cocked his eyebrow at her. She just grinned and said, "I know, I'm a big freak."

Freak. That word. The momentary happiness was gone. "You're not a freak," he said quietly.

"Oh really," Kat replied. "You obviously don't know my very well." They were silent again until she said; "I think we need to get to know each other better. We should hang out; do some friend stuff."

_Friend stuff? She wants to do friend stuff with me? Why?_ He realized too late that he had asked "why" out loud. "Sorry. I just meant, why would you want to hang out with me?"

"Well, Dudley's cool and everything, but he kind of has his own thing going on. And I noticed that you don't hang out with anybody. Not that I'm implying that you don't have friends," she added quickly, which made Harry smile again. "I'm sure you do, but your always in your room and I thought that maybe, you might want someone to hang out with."

_She was thinking about me? She noticed me? Someone actually gives a crap?_

"Yeah, I'd like that," he answered.

She smiled. "Good. Because, even thought you might have friends, I don't. At least, not here, anyway." She stood up and stretched. "Speaking of which, I need to send some emails, so I'd better get going. You coming?"

"Uh, no. I think I'll stay here for a bit."

"Okay. See ya later."

"Bye."

As Kat walked away, Harry smiled to himself and pushed himself on the swing a little. He had a new friend. Maybe being at the Dursleys wouldn't be so unbearable after all.


	6. Crazy Disney People

OH MY GOSH! I am SO SORRY it's been so long. I've been having writer's block like a mother. But I'm kinda excited about this chapter cause it was really fun to write. I am working on the next two, possibly three, right now, so I will try to have a least one of them up before the weekend is out. Again, sorry. Thanks for being patient.

Oh, and I'm also working on trying to have titles for my chapters, since I personally think it's kind of annoying when people don't have chapter titles (not that I'm hating on anyone. I totally get how hard it is to come up with chapter titles) but I don't want them to sound cheesy. If anyone has any suggestions after reading some of the chapters, I'd be glad to hear them. Thanks!

* * *

Chapter Six

_Oh somewhere deep inside of these bones_

_An emptiness began to grow_

_There's something out there far from my home_

_A longing that I've never known..._

__

Harry walked into the house thirty minutes later to find Kat and the Dursleys sitting around the big screen television. Harry went past the blaring of the news and was headed up the stairs when he heard soft padding behind him. He turned and saw Kat running up the stairs after him. She had changed into gray sweat pants and a tee shirt with a strange-looking blue creature on it and the word "Stitch" over it. He looked at her feet and noticed she was wearing fuzzy gray slippers. It was probably the first time the word "adorable" ever crossed his mind.

"Hey," she said, with that huge white smile that Harry couldn't help but return. "Dudley and I were gonna watch a movie when your uncle's finished with the news. Umm, do you wanna come?"

It took him moment to register that he had just been invited to watch a movie in the Dursley's house, but Harry nodded and Kat smiled again. "Cool. I don't know what we're going to watch, though. I brought all my DVDs. You can help pick."

Harry didn't know how much help he would be in picking a movie, seeing as how he hadn't seen one in years, but he just nodded again. Kat grabbed a large leather case from her room and bounded down the stairs, Harry trailing behind her.

"Okay, movie time." Kat settled herself on the floor and patted the ground next to her, where Harry sat down. "What are you guys in the mood for: Disney, or Passion of the Christ, either way, we're all going to be really depressed." Harry bit his lip to keep from laughing, not because he understood a word Kat just said, because he didn't, but because of the look on the Dursley's faces.

Kat noticed too, and laughed feebly. "Heh, heh...just kidding."

Dudley was the first to come out of the stupor and asked, "How are Disney movies depressing?"

"Well, I find it very depressing that they aren't real. Or sometimes it's because I'm not in Disney World at the moment. And in most Disney movies, the main character's mom dies. Like in Finding Nemo. Ooh! Do you want to watch Finding Nemo?"

Again, Dudley was the first to answer. "Isn't that that fish movie?"

Kat's eyes took on a strange gleam and her mouth fixed into a smile. She nodded. Petunia chimed in. "Oh, I know what you're talking about. I heard it was quite good."

"Yeah it is!" Kat still had that strange gleam. "It's like one of the best movies ever!"

"What's it about?" Vernon grunted, tearing his eyes away from the TV, which at the moment was showing a commercial for a cleaning product.

Kat leaned forward and took a deep breath, as if she was about to tell a great story. "Okay," she began, "it's about these fish, right. And this one fish, that's like a cripple, gets caught by this Australian dentist guy, and all the fish are trying to escape the fish tank because of the dentist's psycho niece. And there's this fish that can't remember anything and these turtles who are all like, surfers, because they're all like, 'whoa', and these sharks that don't eat fish; it's like freakin' Alcoholics Anonymous; it's hilarious. So funny."

Kat sat back and admired the reaction her rambling got. Vernon cleared his throat and said, "Well, um, I don't know, talking fish, that's not uh, very realistic, is it?"

"Yep, those crazy Disney people, they're always chalk-full of the not-real. That's why I love 'em."

"Well, go ahead and put it in, dear, the news is over," Petunia said. "Does anyone want popcorn?"

"Ooh me." Kat and Dudley answered simultaneously. Petunia went off to the kitchen. Harry had known better than to say he wanted popcorn. So far, the Dursleys had acted as if he wasn't in the room.

Petunia came back with three bowls of popcorn, and handed one each to Dudley and Kat. She then sat down on the sofa next to Vernon and shared the third bowl with him. Kat pushed play on the DVD player and held the bowl out to Harry, who eyed it warily. Kat looked at him and said. "I know you don't think I'm gonna eat this all by myself." Harry noticed that the sound of munching popcorn had stopped. He turned and the Dursleys were all staring at him. Kat hadn't noticed. "Uh," he started, "that's okay..."

"Come on, it's good for you." Kat looked so serious. "Look at all that butter and salt, just waiting to pump through your arteries." Then, in a low, husky voice Harry didn't think was possible for a girl, especially one as little as Kat, she said, "**Eat up skinny**." Harry stared at her wide-eyed, and she cracked up laughing. "Oh, the look on your face is priceless!" He started to smile too. "Oh, I guess you're not ready for the man voice."

"The man voice?" Harry asked.

"Yeah... ooh it's starting."

The movie had started, so they quieted down. Although Harry turned out to love Finding Nemo, he spent more time watching Kat then he did the movie. She had the most fantastic reaction to things. She would lean over and say, "oh, this part's hilarious" or "that is so creepy." And she seemed to find the littlest things funny, so she would laugh a lot. Her laugh was unique; it started out loud and short, and then she would just lower her head and laugh silently, then raise her head and sigh. She would repeat things that were funny and moved her hands a lot. She was a very interesting person to watch. Harry could tell she really loved movies.

Finding Nemo was incredible. Harry especially loved the seagulls that repeatedly shouted "MINE!" And he knew that "just keep swimming" was gonna be stuck in his head. He honestly hadn't thought he would be that entertained by a movie, as long as he had been in the wizarding world. He probably wouldn't have been at any other time. But seeing it with Kat made it interesting.

When the movie was over, everyone got up and stretched, and Vernon and Petunia went to bed. Harry was feeling restless, and didn't particularly want to go back up to his room. Kat took care of that.

"Do you guys want to watch another one?" Harry and Dudley both nodded, Dudley giving Harry a strange look.

"Okay, pick something." They sat down on the sofa, Kat in between Dudley and Harry, and looked through Kat's case.

"You have a lot of movies," Harry observed.

"Oh, these aren't all movies. Most of them are cds, actually. But I'm a huge fan of Disney. And Aqua Teen Hunger Force."

Harry didn't bother to ask what Aqua Teen Hunger Force was. One movie caught his eye. "What's The Nightmare Before Christmas about?"

Kat's eyes took on that gleam again. "Oh that's another one of the best movies ever. You'll notice how most of the best movies ever are Disney movies. Anyway, it's about this skeleton from Halloween world that finds out about Christmas world and tries to take over Christmas and totally screws it up. It's the most disturbing children's movie I've ever seen; I'm not even sure it's supposed to be a children's movie. I didn't know it was Disney until like, two years ago. But it's awesome. And I know all the words." She smiled, obviously very proud of her accomplishment. Dudley looked at it with as close to a thoughtful look as he could get. "It looks creepy."

"It is creepy," Kat explained. "But it's heartwarming and teaches good moral values." She gave a huge fake smile. "Plus Jack's hot. If I were a skeleton...well anyway, do you wanna watch it?" Harry nodded. Kat turned to Dudley. "What about you, Dudders?"

Dudley looked at her in alarm. Harry looked at her in shock. She had just called him "Dudders." Most people would get have gotten beaten up for that. But Dudley just nodded, and Kat got up and put the DVD in, with the boys staring at her from the sofa.

From the beginning, Harry completely agreed with Dudley that The Nightmare Before Christmas was creepy. Why any child would watch this movie was beyond him. Actually, he would have been freaked out to find a little kid whose room was decorated in Nightmare Before Christmas stuff.

But what really did it for Harry was Jack. Creepy or not, Harry was enjoying the movie for the first few minutes. Then the scarecrow on fire came. It jumped in the fountain, and out of the fountain, out of the white liquid and thin mist, came this tall, abnormally thin, white creature. It was all too familiar. It reminded Harry too much of another tall, abnormally thin, white creature. He stared at the screen, not really seeing it, but seeing **him**, and he could hear the high, cold, cruel laugh.

He felt someone squeeze his shoulder gently. He looked over and Kat was looking at him with concern. "Is it really that scary?" she asked. Harry realized that his fists were clenched and his whole body was rigid. He tried to relax and sighed. "Yeah. I mean, no, it's not scary. I was just—thinking of something."

Kat nodded and turned back to the movie. Harry mentally shook himself. What was he doing, letting a stupid movie get to him like that? Was he really that much of a spaz?

Despite his little freak out, Harry enjoyed The Nightmare Before Christmas almost as much as Finding Nemo. He turned out liking Jack Skellington, as scary and familiar as his appearance was. At least he didn't have red eyes, Harry mused, or there would have definitely been a problem.

Dudley stalked off to his room, and Kat sat back down on the floor and proceeded to put her DVDs in order. Harry looked at the clock. It was only 11:30 and he was tired.

"Well, I think I'm headed to bed." Harry helped Kat up to her feet. "Okay," she replied. "See you in the morning."

"Good night," he said.

"Good night."

* * *

WHOO! LONGEST CHAPTER YET! I'm excited! I hope you all liked it. Finding Nemo and The Nightmare Before Christmas really are two of my favorite movies, and I thought they were kind of universal so it wouldn't go over too many people's heads (Finding Nemo in Spanish is Buscando Nemo. How cool is that? ï 


	7. Disturbed

Chapter Seven

_Running from a scary man, bring an end to what's to come_

_You don't see what I can see, twisted pictures haunting me_

_Failure trails so close behind, you'll just wait till we meet again..._

It was almost two in the morning and Kat still wasn't tired. She had spent the last few hours on the computer, but there was only so much Poppit she could take. She was now sprawled on the bed, trying to read, but her mind kept drifting off.

Kat was pondering her first few days in England. So far she hadn't seen much; the Durleys were giving her time to "settle in." But just being in the house gave her plenty to think about. There was Vernon and Petunia, who were nice, but seemed fake, like they were hiding something. Then there was Dudley, who was...Dudley. What you see is what you get, pretty much.

Then there was Harry. Now he was different. He was so quiet, and so sad. Kat prided herself on her gift of perception, and she could definitely perceive a lot of hurt and conflict in him. He barely said a word, but his spirit was screaming so loud it made her head hurt. She was definitely going to have to work on that boy.

Kat sat up and sighed, giving up on reading any more that night. She was just thinking of going downstairs to eat something when she heard yelling. Alarmed, Kat quickly padded to the hallway. The Dursleys had not awoken. They must be deep sleepers, she mused. She looked to the room the commotion was coming from. It was Harry's room.

Harry was running, running down that familiar dark corridor, only there was no door at the end. It just kept going, on and on forever. Harry's legs screamed in pain, and he was panting heavily, but he couldn't stop. It was after him. Harry looked over his shoulder, and there it was. The huge, shaggy black dog was chasing him, its yellow fangs bared and its fur matted with blood. Blood that Harry was responsible for. Now the Grim was paying blood with blood.

Harry kept running, panic overtaking him. "Someone, please, help." The scenery changed abruptly, Harry was no longer in a corridor, but in a large room with a stone dais in the middle. There was also a fountain, filled with an eerie white, misty substance. The dog barked, and Harry stumbled and fell. He screamed; the dog was pouncing on him, ripping him to shreds. A figure started to rise out of the fountain. A white, skeletally thin figure. He had only a skull, no flesh, no eyes, no muscles. Then, the creature cackled, an evil shrieking laugh, and its face transformed. Where empty eye sockets had been there were now red, mad eyes. Harry looked at it in horror while still trying to fight off the dog.

Another figure rose out of the fountain. A gaunt, decaying figure with matted hair.

"Sirius!" Harry gasped. The dog stopped its attack and stared intently at the dead man. Sirius looked horrible. What was left of his decomposing skin was a yellowish green, he had an eye missing, and he gave off a horrible stench. The stench of death. Voldemort looked at Sirius and grinned. "See what your godson has done to you? You're not going to let him get away with it. He must be punished."

Sirius looked with his remaining eye at Harry, who lay battered and bleeding on the ground at his feet. "You," he croaked.

"No," Harry pleaded. No, I didn't mean to, please Sirius. I didn't want..."

"YOU!" Sirius pointed his rotting finger down at Harry. It fell off of his hand and hit Harry on the forehead, causing his scar to sear. Harry sobbed and tried to beg Sirius to understand. Voldemort watched the scene with amusement. "He must be punished."

Sirius nodded. "NO! SIRIUS PLEASE! NO!" The dog attacked again and tore into Harry's flesh. Voldemort laughed, and Sirius grinned, a line of blood dripping down his mouth. Harry continued to scream and beg as the dog was eating him, pleading for someone to save him because he couldn't save himself...

"Harry."

He heard his name being called, but he thought it was just Voldemort taunting him.

"Harry, wake up."

He tried to hold on to the voice, let it drag him into consciousness.

"Harry, sweetie, you need to wake up."

He felt a cool hand laid on his forehead, and a strange power that he couldn't explain coursed through him. It was strong enough to pull him out. In the next instant, his eyes snapped open and he was staring at the ceiling.

Okay. I thought this was a good place to stop. It might not seem scary, but if you really think about it, if you were having a nightmare like that you would be freaked out too! I really liked this chapter. Review please!


	8. Revelations

Hey guys. Once again, sorry it took me so long. A lot of crap has been going on lately. But hopefully I have gotten stuff straightened out for now. I know it's been said, but I promise I will really, really try to update more often. Thanks for your patience.

Also, a lot of people, those close to me and not, have believed that this story is a so-called "self insert." This is absolutely NOT true. Kat is not me. Yes, we sort of have the same name, and she has many qualities that I myself possess. But she is really a mix of several people I know, and, personally, I think she's too cool to be me. So. I repeat. Kat is NOT ME. THIS IS NOT A SELF-INSERT. Thank you.

One more thing, and this is IMPORTANT. I am adding a second genre to this story. A Foreign Exchange will now be drama/spiritual. DUNDUNDUN! Oh no! Christian, what? Bible, what? If you're a big Satanist, you should probably not continue to read this story. It you're not a Satanist (or even if you are, I don't know) please PLEASE don't be turned off by the spiritual genre thing. I really didn't even want that up there, I'm just scared that the story will be removed for "improper genre" or something. It really is a drama though, and I hope you continue to read. I swear I will do all I can to make sure this is not a corny story, because I have read "Harry gets saved and becomes a Christian" stories, and I was like, "are you serious." So, I promise this will NOT be a cheesy, televangelist, Benny Hinn story (I'm saving that for a different story, and it's going to be hilarious.) Thank you.

* * *

Chapter Eight

It took Harry a second to get his bearings. He was breathing heavily, and clutching something very tightly. He looked and saw that it was Kat's hand. Her other hand was running through his hair.

"It's okay. It was just a nightmare," Kat soothed. Harry calmed down a bit, and realized his face was wet with tears. He hastily wiped them away, and let go of Kat's hand. He looked around at the clock. It was two in the morning.

"I'm sorry if I woke you up," he choked.

"I wasn't asleep," Kat said, leaning back away from the bed. "Are you gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, yeah." Harry was still out of it.

"Okay. I'm going downstairs; do you need anything? Water or something?"

"No. I can't go back to sleep," Harry replied, sitting up. "I'll come too." Kat helped him up and they quietly made their way down the stairs. When they got to the kitchen Kat hopped up on the counter and ate some left over popcorn out of a bowl. Harry poured himself a glass of water and sat at the kitchen table. There was silence for a few minutes. Harry was the first to speak.

"What were you doing up?" he asked.

"I just couldn't sleep; it happens," Kat replied. "I was just reading."

"What were you reading?"

"Bible." She said it nonchalantly, like it was the most normal thing in the world. "Oh," was all Harry said, before looking down at his glass.

"Do you get nightmares a lot?" Kat asked him. He nodded. "Pretty much every night."

Kat looked at Harry with pity. "That sucks," she said. "Yeah," he replied. He could still feel Sirius' finger fall onto his face. Could still hear Voldemort laughing.

"I never really get nightmares," Kat said. "I mean, I get really weird dreams all the time, and some of them are quite disturbing, but I've never really had a nightmare."

You're lucky, Harry thought. He looked up in alarm as Kat asked him, "What were you dreaming about?"

"I don't want to talk about it." His voice was sharp. Kat's eyes widened slightly, but she had a calm, gentle look on her face. "That's fine," she said, with a voice that matched her face. "Well, I should stop eating this before I get fat." She set the popcorn down and hopped off the counter. "Good night, Harry, I hope you feel better in the morning." She was headed toward the door. Something seized at Harry's insides. "Wait," he called.

Kat turned around, her face etched with concern. Harry didn't know what to say. He didn't really know why he had called her back. He just knew he didn't want to be alone. "Will you stay down here for a little while?" he asked. Kat nodded at once and sat down at the table next to him. She then got back up, went to the counter, picked up the bowl of popcorn, and then sat back down at the table. She looked disdainfully at the popcorn for a minute, then grabbed a handful and shoved it into her mouth. Harry grabbed a handful too. When the bowl was almost finished, he had decided to tell her about his nightmare. He knew he couldn't give anything away about his being a wizard, but he had to talk to somebody. And even though he hadn't even known Kat a week, he felt at ease talking to her.

"I was dreaming about my godfather," he began. Kat looked at him but didn't say anything, so he continued. "His name was Sirius Black. We were pretty close."

"What happened?" Kat asked.

Harry took a deep breath. He hadn't actually said the words yet. He hadn't wanted to admit it to himself. "He died. About a month ago."

There was a sickening silence. "I'm sorry," Kat said.

"It's okay," Harry replied. "It's just…hard. I kind of…feel responsible, and I was dreaming that he…he was blaming me." He expected Kat to tell him it wasn't his fault, that he shouldn't blame himself, but she didn't. To his surprise, she put her arm around him and laid her head on his shoulder. "I'm really sorry, Harry," she said.

He was to shocked to say anything. He had never been shown affection like this from anyone. First he wakes up to her holding his hand, now this?

"How did he die?" Kat asked. Harry didn't know what to say. He couldn't tell her the whole story, obviously, but he wanted to be as truthful as possible. He wanted to tell her.

"He was murdered." Kat lifted her head up and looked at Harry in horror. "That's awful!" she exclaimed. "But…why do you think it's your fault?"

"I don't…I guess…" Harry was having a hard time trying to find the right words. "He was… at that place because of me. Because he thought I was in trouble. If I hadn't have gone, if I had listened to people, if I could have stopped being a stupid, angry little boy, he would still be alive…" Harry finished his rant, and looked down, ashamed of himself. Kat probably didn't understand a word of what he just said. "I'm sorry I went on like that," he mumbled.

"Oh, I rant all the time, don't worry about it." Kat sighed. "Well, I don't know the whole story, so I'm not gonna pass any judgment, but, I can say that thinking about the 'what ifs' is gonna drive you crazy. The best thing you can do right now is believe that he's somewhere better."

Harry looked at her strange. "Where would he be?" he asked.

"Heaven," Kat replied. She looked at the clock. It was three thirty. "Oh wow. That's late. We should really try to get some sleep."

"Yeah," Harry agreed. "Thanks for listening to me."

"Oh, no problem. You talk to me whenever you need to."

They tiptoed back up the stairs. Kat gave Harry a hug, which he somewhat awkwardly returned. "Goodnight," she whispered. She went into her room and quietly closed the door.

Harry flopped down on his bed. His body wanted to go back to sleep, but his mind protested. He made a little list in his head of all the things he knew about Kat. She liked Disney. She liked animals; he had seen that from the way she clung to Hedwig. She was obviously a Christian, though he wasn't really sure what that meant, since he had never actually hung out with one. And, she was a really good listener. He drifted off to sleep with the load on his chest lighter, and he didn't have any more nightmares that night.


	9. Conversations

Well, here I go again. I just watched Napoleon Dynamite and I felt this strange urge to update. That movie is awesome. It has absolutely no point, but it makes me feel like less of a loser. Enjoy the chapter.

Oh, and since I haven't disclaimed in a while here's the disclaimer: I OWN IT ALL! Ha ha, just kidding! Yeah, I own nothing.

Chapter Nine

Harry woke up the next morning feeling oddly well rested. He lay in bed trying to figure out why he didn't feel as depressed as usual. He remembered the horrible nightmare he had. And how Kat had comforted him. That was it. Kat was the reason he felt better. Harry smiled to himself. He had a new friend.

Harry went downstairs at 10:30 to the smell of bacon coming from the kitchen. Uncle Vernon had already gone to work. Dudley, Aunt Petunia, and Kat were in the kitchen. Kat was frying the bacon. "Good morning," she said, handing Harry a plate with three strips.

"Oh, thank you. Uh, good morning." Harry replied. He sat down across from Dudley, who was stuffing himself with toast and staring at the television.

Kat sat down with a glass of milk and a piece of toast. "Aren't you hungry?" Harry asked.

"Not really," Kat said, shrugging.

"You look tired," Harry observed.

"Yeah, just a little bit." On seeing Harry's guilty face Kat quickly said, "Oh, it's not because of you. I'm tired no matter how much sleep I get. If I hadn't stayed up with you, I would have stayed up with my laptop."

Harry nodded, and looked across the table at Dudley, who had stopped looking at the TV and was now gaping stupidly at the two of them.

"How's that bacon, Dudders?" Kat asked, nodding towards Dudley's half-eaten breakfast. "Is it crispy enough? I'm still learning."

Dudley blinked, then mumbled, "It's good."

"Awesome," Kat replied, starting on her own "breakfast," which took her about thirty seconds to consume. Harry stared at her. "Is that all you ever eat for breakfast?" he asked.

"Pretty much. Why?"

"Well, it's just, my friends would never let me get away with eating that little," Harry told her, which was true. One piece of toast and a glass of milk would earn him a batch of badgering from Hermione.

"Then you have very good friends, who don't want you to be malnourished," Kat said as she headed toward the sink and rinsed out her glass. "My friends don't care. They think I'm fat and that I should kill myself."

Kat turned around to see Petunia staring at her, horrified. "Ha ha, just kidding," Kat said lamely. "Um, what are we doing today?"

"Well," Petunia said, slowly, turning back to the dishes, "Nothing really, because tomorrow we're going into town to do some shopping."

"Ooh! Shopping!" Kat exclaimed.

"Yes, dear, I knew you'd enjoy that," Petunia said, beaming. "And you can see a little more about our culture and the like for your report."

"Oh yeah, that's good. I almost forgot about that." Kat turned to Harry. "I'm supposed to write a report on my stay, like the culture, food, transportation, and stuff. That's the 'educational' part. I guess they didn't realize that it would take about five minutes and the rest of the summer has nothing to do with education. That's how ghetto my school is. They shouldn't even call this an exchange program. It's not even during the school year. But I'm not complaining." Kat paused and looked out the window. It was a pleasant day. This summer wasn't as muggy as the last one. "So do you wanna hang out?" Kat asked.

"Um, sure," Harry replied, as he walked to the sink. Aunt Petunia practically ripped the plate out of his hand and gave him a look that clearly said, "no funny business."

Harry and Kat went out and sat on the garden wall. "So, what do you want to do?" Kat asked, offering Harry a piece of gum.

"I don't know, what do people in America do when they hang out?" Harry asked as he popped the yellow gum in his mouth. At once a strange sensation erupted between his jaws. "Whoa, this gum is cold!"

The outlandish American threw back her head and laughed. "It's Lemonade Koolerz. It's supposed to be like you're chewing lemonade or something. Isn't it awesome?"

"Awesome." Harry didn't use that word very often, and it sounded strange coming from him. Kat proceeded to answer his previous question. "Well, Americans hanging out…we pretty much sit around and talk about people."

Harry snorted. "That sounds like fun."

"Oh it is," Kat said sarcastically. She then hopped off of the garden wall and pulled Harry off. "Let's walk." They headed aimlessly down the street. They walked in silence for a few minutes before Kat sighed. "I love it here," she said dreamily.

"Is it really that different from America? Our culture that is?"

"Not really. I mean, you do some things differently. It just seems like you're so different because you're so much cooler than we are."

Harry chuckled. "Oh yeah," he muttered, kicking at a loose pebble.

"I don't know, I've always been obsessed with everything England. I used to want to marry my youth pastor and start a buck church here. After we established a pineapple farm in Australia of course." Kat frowned. "Man, I used to be a big loser. A pineapple farm?"

Harry was busy wondering about something else. "What's a buck church?" he asked.

Kat's eyes took on that creepy gleam they had when she talked about movies. "Oh, I'm sorry. I was totally speaking Christianese. Buck means, like, to get hype. Hyper. Excited. 'We get so crunk we get so buck we are tha, tha holy south!'" Harry stepped back and stared at Kat wide eyed as she had this little outburst. Kat stopped shaking her shoulders and looked at Harry with horror. "I am so sorry. Sometimes I just…get weird like that, and I'll try really hard to never do that again." There was a pause. Harry burst out laughing.

"What was that?" he asked, overcome with laughter.

"Yeah, that's the reaction I usually get," Kat said. "Okay, well, you get the picture. Most churches are boring, mine isn't because we're happy and excited to be there, in other words, it's buck. The point is, I've always wanted to live in England."

"Well, I'm sorry to say we don't get very buck here," Harry chuckled. Kat laughed with him. "Maybe that isn't such a bad thing," she replied. "I think another reason I like it here so much is because there isn't so much ghettoness."

"Yeah, you've mentioned ghetto before. What exactly does that mean?"

"Well, sometimes it's a good thing, and some people who act ghetto are cute and all, but for the most part, they are a bunch of low life punks with bad attitudes who are always starting fights and think that the world owes them something because they wear Fubu and can't keeptheir pants up properly. It's very sad. It's an epidemic at my school."

"I know what you mean," Harry said, thinking of low life punks that he knew. Like Malfoy. Of course, Malfoy probably didn't wear Fubu. And with school robes it was hard to tell whether or not he sagged, and Harry hadn't ever really attempted to find out.

They had reached the park by now and sat down on the swings. "Do you miss your home any, though?" Harry asked.

Kat shrugged. "I miss my dad, and my youth group. And my brother, Jared. But that's about it."

"I didn't know you had a brother."

"Well, he's my stepbrother and he doesn't live with me. But we're pretty close. His dad and my mom live in Tennessee. His dad's a big shot guitarist in the country music world." Kat rolled her eyes. "We only see them like, twice a year. Not that I ever saw my mom even when she lived in Indiana. She has a bad habit of putting men before her children. And Jared's mom is the epitome of evil…"

_Bet I can think of someone worse, _Harry thought. "I'm sorry."

"No, this is old news, I'm not traumatized or anything. But it is nice, being here in a nice house and seeing a normal traditional family. I get really jealous when I'm at my friend's house because her parents are married, and she has all these siblings. And I'm basically an only child who lives in an apartment alone with my dad." Kat sighed. "I wish we could at least have a normal house."

Harry stared at the ground and said quietly, "The house can be perfect but it's not worth anything if the family inside it's horrible."

Kat looked at him with concern. "You guys really don't get along, do you?"

Harry glance up at her. "You noticed?"

"It's pretty obvious. How long have you been living with them?"

Harry sighed. "For as long as I can remember." He paused, not knowing what to say next. He was in dangerous territory. Not only could he not reveal his identity as a wizard, but also he didn't want to reveal just how deep the dislike between himself and the Dursleys went. He finally spoke, choosing his words carefully. "My aunt and uncle weren't very…friendly with my parents. In fact, they hated them. So, when they died, the Dursleys weren't too happy with taking me in. I'm pretty sure that's where it stems from."

Kat looked at him in confusion. "Well, if that was so long ago, you'd think they would have gotten over it by now."

"Yeah, well, I guess I remind them too much of my parents." Harry couldn't go any further without lying.

"Do you mind my asking how they died?"

Oh crap.

"Um, car accident." Harry felt bad about lying. Kat was so sincere, so willing to listen to him; he wanted to jump up and tell her everything. But it would be weird, even to this fanatical girl with the strange vocabulary.

A chorus of shouts and laughter broke the silence. Kat and Harry both looked up to see a group of large teenage boys entering the park. "Great," Harry muttered. Kat stood up to get a better look. "There's Dudley," she observed. "Yep," Harry sighed. Kat gave him a sympathetic smile. "Do you wanna go?" she asked. "Yes," Harry said immediately. They headed toward the street, in the direction the gang was coming from. A couple of Dudley's friends hadn't noticed Harry was there. All they saw was a hot brunette striding confidently their way.

"Hey baby, what's up?" one of them called. Harry suddenly felt very protective. Kat must have sensed it, because she leaned over and whispered, "Watch this." Kat hunched her shoulders, spread her feet abnormally apart from each other, and resumed her striding with an extremely unattractive look on her face. It was the funniest thing Harry had ever seen.

"What's up?" Kat bellowed at them in that low "man voice" she had used the night before. Dudley's gang stared at her. Dudley only then realized that the girl was Kat. "Guys, that's the girl that's staying with us!"

"Oh, hi Dudley!" Kat immediately went back to normal. "I'm Kat. Nice to meet you all."

They all agreed that it was very nice. "Dang Dudley, how lucky are you to have this staying in your house," Piers exclaimed. Kat still had her smile though Harry could see in her eyes that she did not like Piers.

"Shut up, you idiot!" Dudley whispered loudly. "I was just trying to give her a complement!" Piers shouted. Kat was very amused by the scene, until one of the guys noticed Harry. "Hey, Dudley, isn't that you're freak cousin?" Kat's grin quickly faded. Piers, still stupidly trying to impress, said, "Yeah, freak, where have you been?" Gordan piped up, "Didn't you say he went to St. Brutus' Dudley?"

Kat watched Harry. He didn't show any emotion. Apparently he was used to this. He just sighed like he was bored. Kat however, wasn't used to this, and she didn't like it. Meanwhile, Piers continued to show off his stupidity and meanness. "Yeah, that's an all boys school. I bet you like that, don't you, you fing faggot."

"Hey!" Kat snapped. "You watch your mouth." Everything went still. They were all staring at her intimidated. Harry looked at her in surprise. This wasn't the happy-go-lucky person he had spent the morning with. This person was angry. Angry and powerful. Her jaw was firmly set, and her eyes were boring into Piers. Right then Harry was lucky he wasn't on the receiving end of that glare. It put Snape's to shame.

Piers seemed to be having trouble speaking. "I'm sorry," he mumbled.

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't think…"

"No you didn't think. Didn't your mother ever teach you not to cuss in front of a lady? Or at all?"

"I'm really sorry," Piers stammered.

Kat's face softened. "It's cool. I just, don't like cussing. It's this weird thing I do where I'm a Christian and I don't cuss so, try not to do it in front of me okay? It makes me queasy."

Piers nodded intently. Kat smiled. "Okay. Sorry I freaked out like that."

"Oh that's okay. I needed to be taught a lesson."

Kat blinked. "Um, okay. Well Harry, we'd better get going. Nice meeting you guys." Harry came out of his stupor and numbly followed Kat out of the park. Kat turned to him with uneasiness etched on her face. "I really freaked out back there. I didn't mean to. Do you think they hate me now?"

Harry gave her a reassuring smile. "If anything, they respect you even more. That was cool." Kat just rolled her eyes and sighed. "Does cussing really make you queasy?" he asked.

"Yes," Kat said, exasperated, "And I don't know why! It's so weird, but I can't help it. And he insulted you and that really made me mad."

"Well, don't worry, I'm used to it," Harry told her. She just shook her head sadly.

Dudley's gang watched the two head towards Privet Drive. They were still dumbstruck by what had just taken place. "Man, that was crazy," Piers said. "But she's really hot, so it's okay."

"You're retarded Piers," Gordan said. "She said she's a Christian; she wouldn't go for you."

"Then what was she doing hanging around Potter?" Piers demanded. Dudley turned to him. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, didn't you say that Potter was like, into the occult and on crackor something?" Piers said. "And Christians hate that stuff! So why is she hanging out with him?"

"She probably doesn't know," Gordan said. "Right Big D?"

Dudley grinned, as realization hit him. "Right. She doesn't know." He laughed to himself an evil plan taking shape in his tiny brain.

Whew! That's a long one! Hope it was good. And now it's for real not a self-insert! "A hot brunette striding confidently towards them"? How about no. That's not me. But I do get queasy when people cuss. It's perfectly normal…so I'm told. Until next time!


	10. Confrontations in London

Hello. It's been forever. Sorry, I've been struggling with a lot of stuff lately, so fan fiction hasn't really been at the top of my priority list. But I'm better now. I don't even think it matters that it's been so long, since no one reviewed last time I updated anyway. Oh well. I really hope no one is turned off because I put "spiritual" on the genre. Let me make this clear: yes, this story will have a lot of Christianese stuff in it, but I'm NOT trying to push anything on anyone. I'm a big Christian, and since it happens to be one of my interests, I'm doing this for myself. If anyone else gets anything out of it, awesome. If not, at least review the quality of my writing, because I'm trying to work on my mad skills ; ) Thanks.

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Chapter 10

"Shopping day!"

The next morning, Number Four Privet Drive was buzzing with activity. The five occupants of the house were hurrying about their business, getting ready for their day in London. The only person in the house who was overly excited was the bipolar exchange student. Kat was ready to go an hour before everyone else, and she was now bouncing around the house animatedly. Dudley was unfortunate to cross paths with her on his way to the bathroom. "Better get cleaned up, Dudders, we're going shopping. All right..."

Harry stepped out of his room as Kat came charging down the hall. As manic as she was acting, she was still amazingly attractive, even dressed in casual jeans and a red t-shirt. Kat's eyes lit up when she saw Harry, and he felt himself blush. "Harry! Oh my gosh, how are you?"

"I'm okay, are you okay?" was his uncertain reply.

"I'm great, just great," Kat answered. "Sorry if I'm spazzing out here, I'm just anticipating London. It's like, what I've dreamed of forever. So, excitement! Happiness!"

"I'm glad you're happy," Harry said, distractedly, for he had just read Kat's t-shirt. It had two stick figures on it that appeared to be Satan and Jesus, and said, "Satan is bad, Jesus is good, be like Jesus!" "Nice shirt," Harry, commented. Kat looked confused for two seconds before she looked down at her shirt. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "Yeah, well, it's comfortable, and I can translate it into Spanish."

"That's a good reason to wear it."

"I thought so."

They stood there in comfortable silence for a moment, until Petunia called them downstairs. "Kat, are you ready to go?"

"Yeah," Kat called. She quickly retrieved her purse from her room, and together, she and Harry headed downstairs and to the car. Once again, Kat requested that Harry sit in the middle. "You're just too skinny," she said, climbing in after him. Harry snorted, remembering what she had said to him the other day.

"Eat up skinny," he quoted in a low voice.

Kat looked at him, wide-eyed, a huge grin spreading across her face. "Oh my gosh, Harry, don't make fun!" She playfully shoved him. Harry smiled. He was getting somewhat used to Kat's strange sense of humor.

The drive was fairly eventful. Kat asked a lot of questions about London; what stores there were and the like. Petunia answered her shopping queries with enthusiasm. Harry, who had never been shopping (for himself), didn't find the conversation very interesting, and proceeded to tune it out. That is, until he heard something he knew would not please his aunt and uncle.

"...I would love to check out Portobello Road," Kat was saying, "because they had this huge scene about it in Bed knobs and Broomsticks and it seemed really cool."

Uncle Vernon chose that moment to have a coughing fit and Petunia proceeded to pat him on the back, completely "forgetting" Kat's statement. Kat had a look of concern on her face. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yes," Vernon responded between coughs. "Yes I'm fine." Cough. Kat looked out the window uncertainly. Harry glanced at her, then looked over at Dudley, who had a very amused, knowing look on his face. Harry didn't like it at all. Suddenly, Dudley spoke up. "So Kat, what were you talking about? Some movie?"

Kat looked at him, startled out of her reverie. "Uh, yeah, Bed knobs and Broomsticks."

"Isn't that movie about witches?"

Harry looked at him sharply. What did he think he was doing?

"Yeah, witches. And nazis."

"Same thing," Dudley sneered. "They're both evil."

Harry stared hard at the floor, fists clenched. Kat just looked confused. "Uh...sure," she said, shrugging.

After what seemed like forever, the car finally was parked and Harry tumbled out, feeling slightly sick. "Uh, Duddy, why don't you come with us, we'll buy you a new outfit or something," Petunia bribed. Harry knew what she was doing. She and Vernon had been as uncomfortable as he was during the little episode in the car. They probably didn't want Dudley around himself and Kat for fear he would let something slip. Harry really agreed.

After agreeing on meeting up in a few hours, Harry and Kat set off on their own through the city. They came to a section of sidewalk sales, Kat getting very excited. She picked up every other item, "oohed" at it, and then set it back down. Harry noticed that she seemed to concentrate more on dressing him up than herself. She plopped a black leather cap on his head, nodding and commenting. "That's hot."

"Really?" Harry inquired skeptically, as he looked at himself in the mirror. "Ew."

"Ew! What are you talking about? It's sexy!" Kat exclaimed. She picked up a horrid green floral scarf. "This with it, is so you."

"Right. I think I'll pass." Harry took the hat off. Kat returned the scarf, shaking her head. "You're starting to sound like me." She looked back over at the cap. "Have you ever considered growing your hair out?" she asked.

Harry stared at her. "Um...not really."

"Hmm." Kat gazed at his hair. Harry looked at a rack of moccasins, feeling uncomfortable by the scrutiny. "Yeah, it looks cute short," she concluded. Harry blushed. He wasn't used to being referred to as "cute" so much.

Kat continued. "Some guys can work it," she said. "My little boyfriend in Indy has shoulder-length hair, and it's layered and he straightens it and everything. Most guys would look gay, but he can pull it off."

Harry's mind briefly wandered to Sirius' matted locks. _Stop it. _He pushed the depressing image away and snatched at the first word that flitted through his brain. "Boyfriend?"

"Oh! No, he's not my boyfriend, he's just my friend's younger brother, so he's my boy. I don't actually have a boyfriend," she added. Harry found to his surprise that he was a little relieved. _Weird_. "Do you have a girlfriend?" she asked.

"No." Harry looked uncomfortably down at his shoes, which he just noticed were painfully dilapidated.

"Have you ever had a girlfriend?"

"Well, sort of..." Harry didn't really know what had taken place between Cho and himself. He couldn't really remember anything that happened last year. "I went out a few times with a girl from my school."

"Really, what was she like?" Kat asked as they made their way towards a clerk (Kat was buying the leather cap). "Um, her name is Cho Chang, and she's a year older than me, and she kind of cries a lot and gets really jealous of my best friend, so that didn't really work out."

"Sounds like it." Kat paid for the hat, and they went off toward a bookstore. "Who's your best friend?"

Harry hesitated for a second, then decided to continue. There was no harm in telling about his friends, after all. As long as he left certain parts out. "Well, she's one of my two best friends. Her name's Hermione. She's really smart and kind of bossy. My other friend's name is Ron. He has a lot of siblings and fights with Hermione all the time. They should so go out."

"Okay, now you're really starting to sound like me," Kat said, grinning. Harry felt his face turning red. "I'm sorry."

"If anyone should be sorry, it's me. I apologize for rubbing off on you." Kat stopped to look at the books in the self-help section. She peered at one of the titles. "Why Your Life Sucks. That's the book for me." She picked it up, looked at the price, snorted, and set it back down. "Your friends sound cool." Then she paused. "Wait...Hormone's a girl."

Harry stared. "Um, yeah."

"And Cho is a girl."

"That's right."

Kat seemed to be thinking hard about something. "Don't you go to a boy's school?"

_About that.._. "Oh, yeah, that..." _Think, retard, think_! "I...did go to a boy's school...but I don't now."

Kat frowned. "The Dursleys made it sound like you still went there."

"In their mind, I probably should be," Harry scowled. "They probably told you that to try to dissuade you from being around me too much." _That wasn't a complete lie_.

Kat seemed satisfied. "Hmm. Well, it didn't work." She linked her arm through his and guided him out of the store, not noticing the dumbfounded look on his face. They sat down at an outdoor restaurant for lunch, where Kat continued the conversation over pizza. "No, actually, my brother went to a boy's school."

"Really?" Harry asked, biting into his small slice of pizza. He hadn't had any money with him, and the Dursleys probably hadn't even considered him eating lunch. Kat was quite perturbed by it, and had bought a large pizza for them to share.

"Yeah," she continued. "He was quite a handful a few years back. Which is understandable, considering his crappy family life. But he got saved, got better, and now he's pretty much as perfect as a human being can be." Kat stared at the salt and pepper shakers on the table, a look of pride on her face. "He wants to be a pastor, and a worship leader. He's got mad guitar skills. He's also pretty good at basketball." She looked thoughtfully at Harry. "You know, you remind me a lot of him," she said.

"I do?" Harry questioned.

"Yeah, you kinda look like him. I mean, the dark hair, green eyes, unnatural thinness." She smirked. "And you went to a boy's school, but you're perfectly fine now. And," she added sympathetically, "you're family life isn't exactly Leave it to Beaver."

Harry's brows knitted together in confusion, and Kat chuckled. "It's a TV. show."

"Oh." Harry felt little flattered at her comparison of him to her brother. She seemed to really adore him, so saying that he reminded her of Jared was probably a huge compliment. He would ponder that later. For now, he had to be discreet again because Kat asked, "So, what school do you go to now?"

Harry's brain struggled to produce a quick answer. "A private school. Up north." That wasn't too bad.

"Do you like it?"

"Yeah, it's really great." Harry's love for Hogwarts had somewhat diminished over the past year, but it was still his home. "It's more of a home than the Dursley's house will ever be."

"I like that," Kat said, picking a rogue sausage off of her pizza. "I despise my school with all the fires of hell." Realizing what she just said, Kat looked over the pizza hanging from her raised hand to the gaping boy across from her. "Well, it's not that bad," she shrugged. "It just...has its moments. You know, moments when you just wish someone would come into the classroom you're in and start beating your head against the wall until you go into a coma and don't have to listen to what the teacher is saying?"

Harry leaned his head against his knuckles. "I can definitely relate."

Kat rolled her eyes and nodded, glad someone understood her predicament. "Let's just say I can't wait to graduate."

Harry snorted. "I hope I get that far."

"Amen."

* * *

Sometime later, Harry went to use the bathroom, and Kat waited for him by the sidewalk sales they had passed earlier that day. She rummaged through a rack of sunglasses, mostly huge and ridiculous. She pulled out a particularly nasty looking pair and tried them on. Admiring herself in front of the mirror, she nodded to herself. _License and registration please._

"They really become you."

Kat whipped around and frowned toward the direction of the drawling voice. She spotted a tall, pale, extremely blonde boy smirking at her by the jeans. _That can't possibly be his natural hair color_. Aloud, she said, "Aren't they sexy?"

The blonde shrugged. "They're...unique. Sometimes that's sexy."

Kat nodded in agreement, then took them off and contemplated them. "Eh, I already have a pair just like them," and she set them back in their place. "Should I be impressed?" the boy asked.

"That I paid for them with my own money? Yes," Kat said, turning back to him. She couldn't get over his albino hair. But he wasn't albino. He had very prominent gray eyes. "I'm going to ask you a question," she said. "But first I think we should introduce ourselves. I'm Kat Bailey."

"Draco Malfoy," The boy replied.

Kat stared dumbly at him for a split second. _His parents must have been on crack. _She recovered quickly and shook her head. "Draco. Great. Okay, is your hair for real that color?"

Draco smirked at her again. "Indeed it is."

"Are you serious?"

"Unfortunately, yes. I know, it's not the most attractive hair in the world, but at least I've got an exquisite body to make up for it."

"Right," Kat drawled. Draco narrowed his eyes at her. "You're American."

"Unfortunately, yes. But least I've got a hot body to make up for it."

"Clever."

"I thought so...so you're name's Draco. That's a strange--."

"Yes I know," Draco agreed. "But my parent's names are even worse. My father's name is Lucius."

"Lucius is a Bible name," Kat blurted out. Draco raised his eyebrows. "Really? Hmm. I don't think anyone has ever made a connection between my father and the Bible before."

"That bad?"

"Worse."

Kat jokingly winced. "Well, there were also evil Roman emperors named Lucius."

Draco grinned. "Yes, that sounds more like him." He gestured toward the store. "What are you doing here in England? Just shopping?"

"Oh," Kat glanced around, frowning. Harry had been gone a while. "I'm on an exchange program..." she said distractedly, "where's..."

"Potter!" Draco exclaimed. Kat looked in the direction he had shouted. Harry was briskly walking towards them, his face a mixture of emotions. Kat opened her mouth in surprise. He was radiating a mixture of fear, anger and hate. Major hate.

"Well, well, look who's out and about." Draco's smirk had returned. Kat looked at him, bewildered. "You guys know each other?"

"Oh, we go way back," Draco remarked. "Old school friends. Isn't that right, Harry?"

Harry glared at him with intense loathing. "What are you doing here?" he said through clenched teeth.

"Oh, just moseying around," Draco replied. "I sometimes enjoy wandering around Muggle London. It gives me something to do."

Harry let in a sharp intake of breath at the word "Muggle." He quickly glanced at Kat, who was staring into space, mouthing the foreign word. He turned back to Draco, who was also watching Kat with amusement. "So you're staying with Potter, I assume?"

Kat snapped out of it. "I sure am."

"Well isn't that something." Draco arrogantly looked at his watch, then back up at Harry. "Well, I'm guessing you no longer wish to be in my presence, so I'll leave you to it. It was nice meeting you Kat. Potter." He nodded and headed off.

"Nice meeting you too," Kat called. "Have fun in...Muggle London?" She raised her hands in a questioning gesture and shrugged at Harry. Draco just looked back and grinned.

Harry couldn't seem to move. When he finally remembered to breathe, he noticed Kat was looking at him strangely. It was that concern thing again. "You okay?" she asked.

"What? Oh, yeah, fine, I'm just...shocked. He is the last person I would have expected to see here." And he really was. What was Draco Malfoy doing in Muggle London? And having a civil conversation with a Muggle, no less?

Kat sighed. "Yeah, you really seemed to hate his guts. It was coming off of you in waves."

"Well that's only because...I really hate his guts." They both smiled at the comment. "We should probably get going," Harry suggested. Kat nodded, lifting her bags over her shoulder.

They got to the meeting point early. Kat slumped down onto a bench, gingerly feeling her red face. "Definitely should have worn sunscreen," Harry heard her mutter. She then leaned back and closed her eyes. Harry thought she fell asleep, until she spoke up. "So why do you hate him?"

Harry knew whom she was referring to, and he scowled. "Because he's an arrogant as-."

One raised eyebrow from Kat shooed that thought away. "Sorry. He's not a good person."

Kat nodded in understanding. "He did seem a little cocky." She leaned on one knee. "But I could also sense a lot of uncertainty in him." Harry looked at her, confused. "Sense?"

"I kinda have the gift of perception," Kat said. "He's not all he seems to be. He's got questions about a lot of things. I think his father in particular."

"Lucius Malfoy?"

Kat smiled grimly at him. "I'm guessing you don't like him very much either?"

"Probably less."

"I got the impression that he's not Dad of the Year."

"What?" Kat was about to explain, but Harry interrupted. "No, I get it, I just...I thought Draco idolized his father."

Kat shrugged. "If he used to, I'm pretty sure he doesn't now."

"You got all of this from spending two minutes with him?"

Kat rolled her eyes, more at herself than at Harry. "He seemed desperate to talk to anyone, and I also have a thing for listening. At home people flock to me like I'm Dr. Phil or something." Kat shrugged again. "I don't know. Maybe it will give you something to think about."

It was Harry's turn to sigh. "I already have enough to think about."

Kat just smiled at him and ran her hands through his hair. Harry wasn't embarrassed.

* * *

Wow. You have no idea how hard it was for me to finish this. I'm pretty proud of myself that I got it done, actually. Now the fun begins. Ha ha ha. I think it's going to start to move faster now that Harry and Kat are getting to know each other better. In the next chapter Dudley starts to really start crap and Harry freaks out. I swear this will come sooner than three months, but I do need motivation. PLEASE REVIEW! I'll love you forever: )

Oh, and a couple notes about Chapter Nine. There were some errors that my computer won't seem to let me fix, so I'm just gonna clear them up now. I accidentally spelled Coolerz wrong (I spelled it Koolerz) I saw a pack at the store and was like, "oh great, I spelled it wrong." Also, when Piers is taunting Harry, it didn't put in the stars for certain letters of a word I don't like, so it just says "fing" That is extremely retarded, but I figure you can all tell what I meant to say. Again thank you for your patience, and please review.


	11. Dirty Little Secret

Okay. Remember when I swore the next update would come sooner than three months? Yeah, I was definitely wrong. I'm sorry, I've had major writer's block and I was discouraged because I was getting like no reviews and nobody cared. And then HBP came out and I totally felt that my story sucked and I was just gonna scrap it. But then I got a couple of reviews over the summer that really encouraged me, so I decided to crack down and get back to business. So, after a long hiatus, here's chapter eleven.

This chapter is dedicated to Siriusfanatic and RiverSong DreamShadow, for encouraging me and reminding me to get back to work. I really appreciated your reviews. Thanks a bunch guys!

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Chapter Eleven

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_You've got this dirty little secret, you're trying hard to keep it_

_Out of sight, out of mind, but you can't hide_

_This dirty little secret, you're trying hard to keep it _

_Out of sight, out of mind, but you can't hide_

_

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_

Over the next couple of weeks, Kat and Harry became very close. They spent a lot of time sightseeing, going to museums and landmarks and so forth. It was as interesting for Harry as it was for Kat, as Harry had never actually gotten to go to any of these places. Being around Kat really made Harry appreciate his English heritage for the first time. He was proud to be a Brit.

And he was proud to be friends with Kat Bailey. It amused Harry to no end to see her decked out in souvenirs, reading little fact books like the tourist she was, and going off on spiels about how America made a "ginormous" mistake when they broke away from England and how they should "go crawling back and start begging for forgiveness right now." Kat, in turn, was amused by Harry's awkwardness, and his continuing efforts to step out of his little protective bubble. She could tell he hadn't really started to open up, but sensed that he was close to breaking.

The Dursleys were not amused by Kat and Harry's relationship at all. Harry vehemently swore that Kat was not even close to finding out his secret, but they were suspicious all the same. Kat and Harry mostly went on sightseeing excursions alone, but only after Harry got an earful of threats as to what would happen if he displayed his "abnormalities." When the Dursleys did go on a weekend excursion, they were forced to bring Harry so as not to rouse Kat's suspicion. The entire time they tried to keep Kat away from Harry, but it didn't work. Kat saw right through it, and seemed determined to be around the boy as much as possible. Petunia didn't blame Kat. She knew Kat was a sweet, kind girl who was probably giving the boy so much attention because she felt sorry for him. But it still made her shudder in disgust and wonder why such a good girl like Kat would stand to be close to a freak like her nephew. There was nothing she could do about it though, so Petunia just pursed her lips and settled for giving Harry warning glares whenever the two teenagers left the house.

When Harry and Kat weren't sightseeing, they mostly hung out around the house together, going on walks, watching movies, and listening to Kat's interesting selection of music. She listened to practically everything, but her specialty was "hard core rock," which Harry felt was very helpful in letting his anger and frustration out. Some of the bands were so intense; it was hard to believe this music was Christian.

"That's what makes it so fun!" Kat had said when Harry voiced his opinion. "It sounds like devil music, but it isn't!" Then Kat would proceed to play air guitar and air drums at the same time, singing to the music as much as to the words, her head and shoulders moving aggressively, almost angrily, back and forth to the beat. She didn't turn it up too loud when Aunt Petunia was home. Aunt Petunia didn't care for the noise. Dudley, on the other hand, could be seen mouthing the lyrics to "Wake" by East West.

Other than his aunt and uncle's annoying stares and glowers in his direction, the one thorn in Harry's side was Dudley. Ever since that day in London, he had been making snide comments whenever his brain would allow, which, surprisingly, was a lot. It was subtle enough that Kat didn't catch it, but Harry did, and he wasn't quite sure what Dudley was playing at, but he knew he didn't like it. He quickly found out though, when he confronted his cousin after he made a comment about the Wicked Witch of the West. Making sure Kat was out of earshot, Harry hissed, "What do you think you're doing? Don't you realize how pissed your parents will be if Kat finds out? She'll associate you with 'my kind' or whatever rubbish you people think up."

Dudley just smirked. "Potter, don't you get it? She'd sympathize with us." At Harry's confused glare, the rotund boy continued. "Kat's a Christian, Potter. Christians hate magic. If she found out about you being a freak, she would hate you, and feel sorry for us because we have to live with a Satanist. Why else do you think I'm doing this? It's way too much fun to watch you panic."

With that, Dudley waddled out of the kitchen, leaving Harry to his fears.

That had been a couple of days after London. About a week and a half later, everything seemed to be going normally. Kat was her usual bubbly self; Harry followed her like an adoring puppy. Despite his fears that Kat would find out, he spent as much time with her as possible. It was strange to admit, but he knew he was developing feelings for the awkward girl with the unique, sometimes cynical sense of humor. He wrote to his friends about her. Ron wanted to know if she was hot, so Harry sent a picture of the two outside of the Tower of London (Kat's favorite place so far; the girl could be so bizarre at times). Ron replied, saying that he definitely approved, and so did the twins. Hermione was delighted, saying that it was about time that Harry have some happiness during the summer holidays. However, being perceptive as only Hermione could be, she let Harry know that he needed to tell Kat about his "alternate life" before he had any conversations on how he felt. Harry stared at Hermione's letter for an hour before replying, telling his friend that he would ponder it for a few days.

He didn't get that far. That evening everyone congregated in the living room. Uncle Vernon read the paper, Aunt Petunia knit, Dudley watched T.V. (big surprise), and Kat sat in front of the fire, working on a devotional. Harry, who was by now comfortable enough with the situation that he didn't care about being around the Dursleys, sat next to Kat, working on a letter to Remus. Kat never pried into his business, so he didn't worry about the content of the letter. All she did was ask, "Who are you writing to?"

"My uh...Uncle Remus," Harry replied.

Kat snorted. "Wait, are you serious?" she asked.

"Uh, yeah," Harry said, confused.

"Sorry." Kat returned to her devotional. Then she laughed again. "Yes, Uncle Remus, I know the fish are huge!" she muttered. Harry slowly looked up from his letter and raised an eyebrow, something he often did around Kat.

"Oh, was that out loud?" Kat smiled innocently and pulled her hair behind her ear. Harry noticed her eyes really came out in the firelight. _What? Where did that come from?_

"—Big Daddy? No?" Kat was saying. "Never mind."

"Oh. Sorry." Harry felt his face turning red. "I kind of spaced out."

Kat just smiled and returned to her work. Harry tore his eyes away and glanced at Aunt Petunia, who had been watching the exchange with a mixture of confusion and disgust. She turned back to her knitting, her face screwed up in distaste. Harry sighed and continued his letter.

Dear Remus,

How are you? Everything's pretty good here. Really, I'm having a good time. I mean, the Dursleys are still as unpleasant as ever, but they're not as bad when Kat's around. Kat is the girl who is staying with them over the summer. She's really nice. She's very...interesting. And she doesn't push me to talk about things. Of course, she doesn't have to, since I've already told her more than I probably should. She doesn't know about my being a wizard, but she does know about Sirius. And her being here has helped a lot. I know you guys are there for me, but I think it's good to have someone to talk to who is objective, you know what I mean? Anyways, it's real nice to have someone to talk to around here. She keeps me from going crazy.

So, how are things with the Order? I know, you probably can't say much. I just want to make sure everyone's okay. That you're ok—

"—witchcraft?"

"What?" Harry looked up in alarm. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia were glaring daggers at him. Dudley was smirking. Kat just looked confused. "I'm sorry, Dudley, what was that?"

"Oh, I was just wanting to know where in the _Bible _it says witchcraft is evil."

Harry's throat constricted. It was hard to breathe. He looked desperately at Kat, who was staring at Dudley. "Um...okay," she said. She started flipping through her Bible. Harry looked down at it as if it were his executioner.

"Okay, um, well, Deuteronomy 18:10-11," Kat read, "Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire—

_Whew. That doesn't apply to me._

"—who practices divination or sorcery—

_Shoot. _

"—engages in witchcraft, or casts spells..."

_Oh no. _

"—anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord..." Kat flipped to the back of Harry's damnation. "Also, for those that prefer the New Testament, there's Galatians 6: 20."

_There's more? _Harry looked over her shoulder. There it was, in bold, black print. "The acts of sinful nature are obvious...witchcraft..." Harry felt like he was going to be sick.

"So I guess it's pretty clear then?" Dudley asked Kat. Kat nodded. "Yeah, He makes it pretty clear." Dudley's malicious grin widened. "So," he asked, "do you think it's a sin?"

Kat blinked. "Witchcraft?" Dudley nodded. "Well," Kat seemed to be choosing her words carefully. "I believe what the Bible says, so...yeah."

Harry definitely felt sick.

"So do you think that people who practice witchcraft will burn in hell?"

"I'm gonna be sick." Harry shot up. Kat grabbed his hand. "Whoa, are you okay?"

"Yeah," Harry said distractedly. "I...ate...shouldn't have eaten all that cubed cheese... excuse me..." He wrenched his hand away and bolted upstairs, leaving a once-again confused Kat, a triumphant Dudley, and an extremely perturbed aunt and uncle in the living room.

Harry ran into his room, breathing as if he'd run from Hogwarts as opposed to the living room. Once he'd calmed a bit, he heard heavy footsteps coming down the hall. His uncle didn't bother to knock, but barged in, closed the door behind him, and stared furiously at Harry. "What the devil was that all about!" he hissed, his face purpling.

"I don't know," Harry retorted. "Why don't you ask Dudley?"

"Boy, I'm warning you, if she finds out about your...abnormality—

"Well, maybe if you'd tell your son to stop pissing me off-

"Don't you take that tone with me!"

"Don't sit here and yell at me for something that isn't my fault!"

They glared at each other, Harry's temper rising along with Vernon's blood pressure. Vernon spoke again first. "You'd better not have any...accidents like you have had before with Marge, and Dudley at the zoo..."

"I won't," Harry cut him off. "I don't want her to find out anymore than you do."

Uncle Vernon smirked. "Oh that's right," he said, "if she finds out what you are, she'll despise you. She'll wish you would burn in hell like the sinful little freak that you are."

Harry stared at him. "Are you done?"

Uncle Vernon opened his mouth as if to say something, decided against it, turned, and left the room, slamming the door.

Harry let out a shuddering breath and dropped onto his bed. He couldn't stand the thought that Kat might hate him. He thought of her laughing eyes, and the look of concern she always gave him, and he didn't think it was possible for Kat to hate him. He didn't think it was possible for Kat to hate anyone. But deep down there was a nagging feeling telling him that maybe his relatives were right, that if she found out, she would think he was a Satanic sinner.

_But I'm not, _Harry thought to himself. _Am I?_ Doubt started to grip at his insides. Sure, he had never actually worshipped Satan or slaughtered a goat or anything like that, but he did practice divination, and he did cast spells. _Am I a... sinner? Do I even believe in that?_ What he believed didn't matter, though. It was what Kat believed. And if she believed that he was evil, Harry didn't think he would be able to handle it.

* * *

Kat had been extremely worried when Harry had fled from the living room looking positively green. Vernon had gone up after him to see what was wrong, and came back down saying that Harry had just eaten something that hadn't agreed with him. Kat wasn't sure she believed that. Vernon had never really shown that he cared for Harry before, so why would he start now? And Dudley's little smirk was getting very annoying. She had no idea why he had asked her such a random question. _He's probably trying to make fun of me. Like I'm not used to it. _In all honesty, Kat was caught off guard about the witchcraft inquiry. She didn't really care that much about the issue. She knew a couple of people at her school were into Wicca, and they were relatively cool people. Personally she thought it was wrong, but if they wanted to mess with it then that was their business. She wasn't going to drown them in Holy water or anything.

So back to Harry. He had been acting weird the past week, especially around Dudley. Now that Kat thought about it, it was whenever Dudley said something about magic or witches or something. Oh God. Was Harry into Wicca? Was he into the Occult or something? Did he like to play Dungeons and Dragons and then take it a little too seriously? Kat rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration. Now she couldn't concentrate. She sighed, got up, and said goodnight to the Dursleys.

"Good night. God bless," Dudley simpered.

"Mmm," Kat murmured. She rolled her eyes and headed up the stairs. When she got to Harry's room, she paused. His light was still on. She knocked softly on the door. When he didn't answer, she cautiously opened it.

Harry was asleep on top of his bed, still in his clothes, a look of pure misery on his face. Kat gazed at him sadly. A soft hoot caught her attention. "Hi baby," she said to the snowy white owl. Hedwig replied by nudging Kat's finger with her beak. Kat sighed again, turned off Harry's lamp, and closed the door softy behind her, a deep ache for the poor depressed boy building in her spirit.

The next morning, the crap really hit the fan. Harry came down the stairs feeling exhausted, like he hadn't slept at all. Kat was feeling equally run-down. They both slumped at the kitchen table. Kat glanced at him and said, "Life really sucks."

"Yes, yes it does." Harry laid his head on his arms. Kat rested her elbow on the table and leaned her head against her hand. "Didn't sleep well?"

"Not really," Harry replied.

"That cubed cheese give you a hard time?"

"Uh, yeah." Kat looked steadily at him, and Harry knew that Kat didn't believe that story. She didn't push though. "So, what are we doing today?" she asked. "Just chillin?"

"I guess." Harry didn't feel much like doing anything. He was content to just stare at his hands for the rest of the day. He finally looked up to see Kat was still looking at him. She smiled, but it was a sad smile. Harry returned it.

Dudley chose that moment to come in. He strutted into the kitchen, humming to himself. Kat raised her eyebrow. "I'm glad someone is having a good morning."

Dudley paused, seemingly trying to think of something to say. His brain clicked, and he replied, "Yes, well, I prayed last night, and today, I've been blessed with a good mood."

Kat blinked at him like he was the stupidest person she had ever met. "That's...fantastic," she muttered.

Dudley grinned. "What about you two? Why do you look so down? Especially you Harry. Didn't you pray last night?"

"Dudley, would you please just cut it out for just five minutes?" Harry's nerves were already frayed; he didn't think he could control himself.

"Why Harry? You should really learn to control that temper, by the way, you don't want to blow up. Or, you know, blow up anyone else."

Kat hadn't been paying attention to the conversation. She was busy staring at the salt shaker. She did, however, catch that last sentence. "Blow someone up? What?"

Harry looked like he was gonna be sick again. He stared at Dudley, then looked at Kat. "I can't take this," he said, and then he got up and ran out of the house.

"Harry!" Kat yelled after him. She would have gone after him, but she was still in her pajamas, and she didn't really have the energy. She looked hard at Dudley, who was on the verge of laughter. "You think you're real cute, don't you."

Dudley stilled. "What?" he asked, confused.

Kat sighed, irritated. "It's not necessary or attractive to give him a hard time like that. I don't know what's bothering him, and I don't know what's wrong with _you_, but I haven't seen him do anything to deserve this treatment from you, or your little friends for that matter, so why don't you just chill?"

Dudley looked dumbly at her, trying to process what she had just said. Kat rolled her eyes and ran upstairs to get dressed. She then headed out to find Harry, who was rapidly gaining her affection.

Harry had run to the park and was currently sitting on one of the more secluded picnic tables. He was close to tears. That spectacle was sure to have gotten Kat's attention, and he didn't know what he was going to do. He couldn't keep lying to her like this, but he was fairly certain he would die if she condemned him to hell.

He sat there for a good half hour before he heard footsteps approach. He didn't have to look up to know who it was.

"Harry?"

"Go away," he muttered.

Kat sat down next to him on the table. "Something has been bothering you a lot lately. I know you said you were used to Dudley's being an...well, being himself, but there's something else going on. What's up?"

Harry looked up at her, tears filling his eyes. "If I tell, you, you're gonna hate me."

Kat looked horrified. "Of course I'm not gonna hate you! It's not possible to hate you."

"Tell that to Dudley."

"Well, Dudley's stupid."

Harry snorted, then sighed deeply. "I want to tell you so bad."

"But you're afraid that if you tell me, I'll think you're some big sinner."

Harry looked at her in alarm. "How did you know?"

"Perception, remember? Besides, I'm smarter than Dudley. I get that his little comments were leading somewhere." They were silent for a moment, then Kat took Harry's hand. "Harry, I really care about you." Harry looked hopefully at her. "I could never hate you. You're too cute...I'll tell you what. You tell me what's been going on, because I know that you need to get it off your chest, and I promise I won't hate you."

"How can you promise?"

"I don't make promises lightly."

They gazed at each other for a moment, then Harry sighed, his mind made up. He had to tell her.

"This is gonna sound really weird."

* * *

OH MY GA! I finally did it. I'm so proud of myself. Now, it's late, and I have to work in the morning, so I hope someone reviews so my efforts weren't in vain. I can't promise that the next update will be soon, but I can promise that there will be an update, hopefully sooner rather than later. But that really all depends on the motivation. So please review. Until next time! 


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